Friday, December 26, 2008

With the recent signing of Teixeira their's been talk of trading one or two of the Yanks corner outfielders. If they traded one it would make room for Pettitte (which may or may not already exist) and if they traded two they could conceivably be able to afford Manny Ramirez (don't see that happening though). I only see them trading one, if that. Here`s a look at the 3 guys they`re considering trading.

Damon had a great year last year offensively. In fact, believe it or not it was one of the best years of his career with the bat. However, he`s getting older, is an injury risk, and can't play a good centerfield anymore. I`d be shocked if even came close to replicating 2008. Normally, it would be a good time to sell high on him going into a contract year. Unfortunately, though, they can't. His perceived value is a lot lower than his actual value and they wouldn't get enough back to make it worth it. Damon also has a partial NTC and likes New York. He would require some sort of compensation if he were traded making him less attractive to any suitor as well.

Swisher was basically just robbed from the White Sox. They gave up very little to get him and he`s poised to have a huge bounce-back year. What they would get for Swisher is almost definitely going to be less than what they gave up for him as well. He`s under team control for the next few years at a fairly low price as well. Swisher also is going to be one of the only players under 30 in the opening day starting lineup. Trading Swisher makes zero sense.

Matsui can still hit fairly well but that's about it. He`s never been a very good left-fielder and now he`s a huge problem out there so that probably takes out the entire NL as potential trade partners. He`s also the biggest injury risk on this list. It seems like all those years of playing all out every day have taken a toll on him. The odds are probably against him being worth the 13 million dollars left on his contract. They`d have to pick up a big chunk of that and accept almost nothing in return if they were to trade. He brings in a lot of money from Japan as well which might make them reluctant to trade him. Further adding to this mess is that he has a full NTC.

Nady has always been a solid player until 2008. It wasn't until then that he became a genuine star player. The question is whether he`s a late bloomer having a breakout year or just a fluke. I really have no idea how to tell which it is but past history tells us that a fluke is more likely. It might be a good idea to sell high on him here. He`s the only one who would actually bring back anything of value and only has one year left anyway. Moving him would put Gardner or Melky into the lineup but it also lets Damon move to a corner spot. If Nady reverts to his previous offensive levels then the upgrade on defense over a bad Damon and a mediocore Nady largely cancels out the difference between hitters.

Many teams would have interest in Nady and I`ll get into that later on but any trade that could possibly happen probably wouldn't happen for a while. Later on when most of the top free agent hitters are off the board some of the losers may come calling Cashman. Then we might start hearing some rumors. I still don't think the Yanks are done yet though.